Extracurricular Overload | ADHD Information

We've trimmed our schedule down to Boy Scouts on Mon nite and church youth group on Sun nite. It is much easier for ds to focus on his schoolwork and staying organized! My dh and I have also given up a few activities and weeknights are much calmer than they used to be. I much prefer it! We do Scouts once every other week and Sunday school. We live in a very small town, so there are no other activities. We try to keep our schedule as open as possible to lessen any anxiety and give him lots of choices about what HE wants to do.I feel really bad my son is not involved in anything. We live in a small town too and I had him in Cub Scouts and it fizzled out, no one wanted to be scout leader, it was unorganized and ended. He did like going though. All the other units are too far from us. Me and my husband work long hours and by the time we get home and do chores and homework and all that, it is late and have no time for anything. I feel so bad. He does alot with us though, horseback riding, swimming, 4 wheeling, we do alot on the weekends and take him to amusement parks, the beach, the springs, rodeo's, etc. Every year I say I will get him into something and the year just slips by.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14966288/site/newsweek/

i wasn't sure exactly where to put this but this seems the best place. just an article i ran across that i thought might interest some of you.

i was worried about overload with my six year old boy. he's currently in karate (3 x a week), soccer (2 x a week), and church (2 x a week). add first grade and homework into the mix and you can see how busy that leaves him. surprisingly he's held up pretty good, but just to be safe we cut back karate to once a week, at least until his soccer season is over 2 months.

i think that extracurricular activities are great for any child, but when a child is adhd, they seem to benefit from it just a little more. from soccer my boy has released alot of extra energy and is steadily working on building his teamwork skills. karate however has been by far the most theraputic. focus, self control, and even manners have all seen improvement. and well, church is a given, he's been going since he was a month old and he actually gets very upset if we miss a sunday. my hope is that the lessons he learns in church will help build his foundation and ultimately help him in making his decisions later on in life.

has anyone ever worried that perhaps they're overloading thier children? and just curious, what activities are you kids in and how is it benefitting them? or is there a reason you choose not to place your children in activities? Like the article says there are some parents who would rather bond with thier children while sharing a snuggle on the couch and watching a movie together and i think that's great too. all kids are different and benefit from different things. so, let's hear it. :)

azurebosque38986.3372569444Hi, Nathan (7), does karate as well he is just finishing his 1st year. He is getting ready to test for his purple belt. It is good for him socially and phyically, he does have problems learning some of the forms. Our classes use weapons does yours? He uses numbchucks and the bow, he is very good with the weapons (of course) Nate also has an obsession with sticks. He doesn't do well with team sports.. tried, t-ball and spring soccer, he does want to try an wrestle this winter.. we try church.. but it is a chore... yes, he is in the church ccd on Monday nights.. In team sports.. Nate was not in the action enough... with karate it is all about you... wanda

I have my 7-year-old son in soccer and cub scouts but he doesn't seem to be interested in either one so I'm not sure if it's overload or lack of interest. I really want to put him in karate but am hesitatant because of his distractability and inability to focus. Have you noticed that it helps?

[QUOTE=wmtmann]Hi, Nathan (7), does karate as well he is just finishing his 1st year. He is getting ready to test for his purple belt. It is good for him socially and phyically, he does have problems learning some of the forms. Our classes use weapons does yours? He uses numbchucks and the bow, he is very good with the weapons (of course) Nate also has an obsession with sticks. He doesn't do well with team sports.. tried, t-ball and spring soccer, he does want to try an wrestle this winter.. we try church.. but it is a chore... yes, he is in the church ccd on Monday nights.. In team sports.. Nate was not in the action enough... with karate it is all about you... wanda[/QUOTE]

Marshall has been in karate for i'd say about 3 months now. he tested for his yellow stripe belt (not yellow, but white with a yellow stripe. interesting graduation system they have.) and passed! i honestly didn't expect him to, because part of the requirement was sitting still for an hour and a half facing the front of the classroom and not speaking while the other students tested. that's hard enough for a regular student to do, let alone an adhd'r. but he really wanted and amazed even the sensei with is ability to sit still for so long. they don't use weapons yet as he's still in the younger group for 3 to 6 year olds. they mainly focus on stances, tumbling, kicks and punches. next year he'll move to the next age group and they start working with long and short sticks whose names i don't recall. no nunchucks or bows.

nate sounds like a one on one type guy, wrestling sounds like it might be a great idea! although marsh enjoys soccer, its seems to me its not the sport he's going to want to participate in years down the road. he seems to like the "oneness" situation. wrestling never occurred to me. :)

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you'll have to look around. i interviewed 3 schools in the area before i chose the one that i felt could meet marshalls needs, and i was very clear to the sensei on exactly where his difficulties were. Marsh took a little bit of extra work, and there are still days where him and another child (his partner in crime) might be doing push ups for a good while because of thier lack of attention, but you'd better believe next class they're on task. its really helped marshall, and much to my surprise. his focus and self control have seen major improvement, his teachers and therapist even noticed the change. before this i was adamant that marshall was not going to do any of these "violent sports" but after watching karate kid he begged and pleaded until finally i gave in. best decision i ever made. :) i'd say try it out. the worst that could happen is that he won't like it and then all you'll do is cross it off the list and move on to the next thing. most schools offer a 2 or 3 week free membership to see if its something the student would actually like to do. good luck! :)

azurebosque38986.3917013889I have not really thought about it I have been allowing the extra stuff in hopes of my girl meeting new friends and burning off energy. On tuesdays we have our parenting group and she has her socialization groups, thursdays are dance nights, fridays are swimming lessons (only for 8 weeks), then on fridays we are going to go from swimming to girl scouts, then on saturdays gymnastics ( 10 weeks). I guess I we do have a lot, we will see how it goes.Daniel does Soccer, Equestarian therapy,Scouts. Daniel has little homework these days. 1 subject a night. We have church on Saturday night and youthgroup once per month. Soccer is only spring and fall 1x/week. My son needs lots of activity and outside time, so we practice ball skills in the backyard or go for long and vigorous walks. It takes about one mile before he starts talking, but Thank God we have that--- if he is worried or upset, he will just unload while we are walking. When we tried more activities-- choir each Monday-- he seemed more stressed. Also, doing our best to read enough pages to be one of the top ten readers in the contest at school-- no pressure there!! It is such a balancing act. I feel like it is hard to sort out structure to help them frame their day vs. overscheduling and never getting to just play.